Social stats for heiress and her Pinkerton/bodyguard

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

think women's fencing clubs were reasonably common- not every master would teach both sexes but women who wanted lessons in a big city could find them.

And an heiress, or a suitable chaperone, could arrange private lesson.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Note also most small towns & villages had railroad access then -- between the needs to move agricultural products, dismal roads, and to import any heavy commodities by rail freight RR connections c. 1925 were vital.

By the 1920s, interurban railroads had taken away much of the mainline railroads' local service. This forced the major railroads to focus on high speed longer-distance routes, so it would be relatively easy to find an unused siding on a little-used spur which just served a local area.

For travel in general, the the era from 1980-1920 was the golden era of U.S. interurban railroads, when local electric-powered trolley lines and light-gauge passenger railroads took over much of the mainline railroad's local market.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

This lady, probably a formidable female of advanced age (50-60+) would be there to protect the girl's chastity against the bodyguard, lecherous young men, fortune-hunters, and other undesirables.

In a college environment substitute the duenna for an equally virulent "house mother."

Until the 1960s, college faculty and staff were expected to act "in loco parentis" for its students, at least those under the age of 21. Every dormitory had at least one chaperone/ dormitory manager whose job was to supervise student behavior when they weren't in class.

Dormitories were strictly segregated by sex. Unless they were relatives, male visitors generally weren't allowed beyond a common room lounge on the first floor of a women's dormitory. Curfews were strictly enforced, especially on week nights and students were only allowed to leave campus under certain conditions. Students generally weren't allowed to live off campus, at least as undergraduates, although there might be exceptions for older undergraduate students or married graduate students. Traditional undergrads were expected to be unmarried and not have children.

All these restrictions are part of Social Stigma (Minor or Second-Class Citizen) or a quirk-level Duty. A particularly draconian house mother might count as an Enemy (Watcher).

Of course, given the likely level of staff turnover at Miskatonic University, it might be possible for the heiress's duenna to be hired on as her dormitory manager.

Even worse, bodyguard and battleax might be a husband and wife team.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by acrosome

I need to make a couple of characters for a Cthulhu 1920s campaign. I'm not worried about the combat, professional, or academic factors- I've got that. What always trips me up are the social ones.

So, one character is the young college-age heiress to a family with a railroad fortune (Rockefeller or Dupont level) currently attending Miskatonic University.

I'd like her to be able to for instance use one of the family's private railroad cars to move about the country, and other perks of being the heiress. Is the family a Patron, then, since it lets her use such equipment? The description of a Patron says that's only if she gets to keep the equipment, so I assume not? What is her personal wealth? I imagine that it might be in the form of an allowance, since she herself is not the multimillionaire currently. That is probably Independent Income. But I think there is also an advantage specifically for an heir somewhere, right? Then, since she won't be getting the free Status from Wealth, what Status seems appropriate? The family patriarch would get +3 status from wealth, since that is the max free status from wealth, so one lower than that? I assume that she should have a Claim to Hospitality from the family, too. Would a young woman in the 1920s qualify for a Social Stigma? The example of that in Basic Set is of a 19th century woman, not a 1920s woman.

I'm interested in usages of GURPS Social Engineering, too, if any apply. And any social functionality that I have missed in general- I'm listening to any ideas. I'm really interested in whatever that heir advantage is, in particular, but I can't seem to find it.

The other character is her NPC bodyguard. He was an NCO of the heiress's father in the Great War, who was his commanding officer and who died saving his life and asked him to look after his daughter while dying. The character now feels an immense Sense of Duty to the young miss, to the point that he would die for her, and I considered Fanatacism, but that doesn't seem to apply to an individual, just organizations, nations, belief systems, or cults. So, Sense of Duty it is. He arranged to join the Pinkertons and have her family hire him as her bodyguard and oddsbody. He basically does most of the family's dirty work.

So, I assume that he has a Duty to the Pinkertons, 15-point level, Hazardous. Or should he have a Duty directly to the family instead, since that's his current job? Or do I just assume that it transfers? He probably has the 10-point version of Legal Enforcement Powers, for being national-level, right? Police Rank 0 comes with that. (Thus he does not need a Concealed Carry Permit, right?) What kind of reputation for a Pinkerton? I assumed a -1 among criminals, but also among union members (even though he personally was never a strike buster, the Pinkerton rep follows him). Or should it be stronger? I made it "recognized occasionally", unless there is a level lower than that? The heiress's family knows and trusts him, so should he pay for them as a Patron, too? How do I model the aid he can assume from local law enforcement authorities? A Contact Group? But the description of Contact Group limits it to organizations no larger than in a single town, so it would work for Arkham PD but not the general help he should expect around the country. Is that just a part of the Legal Enforcement Power and the Police Rank?

I assume that the heiress needs to pay for the bodyguard as a constantly-available (x4 cost) Ally, right? Since he is 100% of her points, that's 5x4 points for 20 points in total. (He basically represents her combat power, since she will have little to none of her own.)

I read through this whole thread, Im unclear of three salient points.
1) Are you the GM of this setting
2) Is this character intended to be a PC or NPC?
--- If PC whats the target point value
3) I don't know a great deal about the Miskatonic University 'setting' but it seems that this kind of specialized curriculum might also be accompanied by a "everyone is equal" kind of living/learning arrangement.


There are huge amounts of variables in play here, and the important one is what can this character do, and why. I feel like your setting them up to be the transportation macguffin. So that moving the PCs around is relatively easy.


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In the end I think you might be better served building the Body Guard as the PC/NPC and her as some form of Dependent (Employer) with the bulk of her points being in her family connections etc. Then he can take advantage of the family wealth (up to a point) and she's free to get in all manner of trouble that he's beholden to save her from.

I understand that you might be trying to create a 1920s Laura Croft, but you will have to take a great deal of poetic license with the Societal Etiquette regarding a strong willed, young, unmarried, rich girl running about behaving like a common strumpet.

[Polydamas]

The 1920s were rather a high point for independent young women in the USA. (Maybe not black women - it was just after the peak in power of the Klan and similar groups- but contemporary observers noticed that women were moving into universities, careers, and general independence in a way they had not 20 years earlier).

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

And an heiress, or a suitable chaperone, could arrange private lesson.

That is a very good point. In every society I know, it has been very hard to make a living teaching martial arts (usually it was what we call a "side hustle"), so plenty of people would have provided private lessons to people who didn't fit in their ordinary classes.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by bocephus

3) I don't know a great deal about the Miskatonic University 'setting' but it seems that this kind of specialized curriculum might also be accompanied by a "everyone is equal" kind of living/learning arrangement.

Oh no. That wouldn't even describe the university I went to in the '70s and Lovecraft was a horrible snob and classist (as well as a racist) even for his time.

No, you might make Academic Rank preferred over the Wealth and Class Rank seen more generally in the US but Academic Rank is _everything_ at a university.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Oh no. That wouldn't even describe the university I went to in the '70s and Lovecraft was a horrible snob and classist (as well as a racist) even for his time.

No, you might make Academic Rank preferred over the Wealth and Class Rank seen more generally in the US but Academic Rank is _everything_ at a university.

Im not deep in the Cthulhu mythos. The only references to 'Miskatonic University' that I know are some oblique references to it in 3e Horror and IOU and a little more detail in 3e Cthulhupunk (maybe a page and a half).

The references in Ctpunk pg75 starting
For the last 100 years and more, Miskatonic University - a small, private university in Arkham, Massachusetts - has been the international center for academic research into the Mythos.
These researches are not undertaken publicly. Ever since certain strange and terrifying events occurred in the early 20th century, the faculty of Miskatonic has been acutely aware that there is good reason to withhold certain facts and theories from the general public.
There exists at Miskatonic what is essentially a secret society of academics dedicated to unearthing the secrets of the Mythos. Not all the professors at Miskatonic belong to the group - in fact, barely 25 percent of the total faculty belongs (about 100 men and women), with particularly strong representation from the Classics, History, Archaeology and Physics departments. Nor are all Society members professors at Miskatonic. They come from all over the world, there are actually more members outside the university than in it, although Miskatonic has by far the largest congregation of members in any one place.
Most of the members are academics, but they also have a few members at any one time capable of offering substantial political or financial support.

My comment about the curriculum was based on this description rather than an indepth study of Lovecraft :) as stated I am not really a Cthulhu aficionado so its really just a setting to me. And it seems like a fairly small specialized school that probably guards its special admissions fairly closely.

I still think that it would play better with the "Body guard" as the main and the Heiress as some form of dependent of employer.

[dcarson]

The movie Throughly Modern Millie has an amusing look at independent women of that era.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by bocephus

I read through this whole thread, Im unclear of three salient points.
1) Are you the GM of this setting
2) Is this character intended to be a PC or NPC?
--- If PC whats the target point value
3) I don't know a great deal about the Miskatonic University 'setting' but it seems that this kind of specialized curriculum might also be accompanied by a "everyone is equal" kind of living/learning arrangement.

1. Yes
2. Both are PCs
3. No way! Not in this setting.

Originally Posted by bocephus

I feel like your setting them up to be the transportation macguffin. So that moving the PCs around is relatively easy.

Not exactly, but not wrong either. Basically, I picked up Wiseman's little write-up on era private railroad cars and thought it looked fun. Honestly, given the modules that I'm looking at running the railroad car will come up rarely. It won't help in Masks of Nyarlthotep, Secrets of the Congo, Horror on the Orient Express, or Beyond the Mountains of Madness at all, for instance. There will be a lot of globetrotting.

Originally Posted by bocephus

I understand that you might be trying to create a 1920s Laura Croft...

Oh, no. Not even close. You have no idea how wrong you are, here.

She's actually reasonably helpless- in fact the bodyguard sort of represents her entire surrogate combat ability- to the point that I have considered (and rejected) giving her the group's Weirdness Magnet just so that she could be competent at something other than holding a martini glass. Such a huge fraction of her points are sucked up by social advantages that she has no more than 1 point in any skill, and not many of those- she's a freshman. And recall that Smallsword Sport defaults to Smallsword at a whopping -3. If anything she's more of the group's face man, due to her wealth and social status.

But over the course of 15+ campaign years she does need to have potential.

[dcarson]

One Advantage that can be a Social bonus, Fashion Sense. Lets you turn dressing unsuitably into a fashion statement and lets you make the party look right and get the +1 in social situations.